My brother served in Afghanistan in the Royal Marines, and we were all immensely proud of him and his friends who he had trained sweat, bled and cried with. He saw a number of good friends die in action out there, more who were visciously mutilated by IED's and other enemy activity. To rub salt in the wounds when he returned home he ahd to attend a court hearing where the MoD was trying to get out of paying life insurance to a 18 year old soldiers families stating he had bought his own body armour and that was why he died! We no longer have any direction in Afghanistan. My blood boils when i hear that fat, worthless scotsman say 'my commitment to afghanistan is unwavering'. Well that's all well and good gormless brown but its not 'your' commitment is it. Are your sons fighting in that hell hole? Do you intend to don the DP and helmet and cart your large arse out there? Of course not, it's just as crass as Blair's 'we are willing to pay the price in blood' comment. 'I woul be proud to see my sons fight in our military' he went on to say. Well do it then, sign them up. How many MP's have been to a soldier's funeral? Or attended the re-patriations at RAF Lyneham? The're too busy frauding the tax-payer over expenses. Pull them out! Yes, it's an absolute insult to the 204 dead, you might as well gob in their families faces. But that's a criticism for the MPs to answer, and they should have to! But to say we must push on in spite of the Taliban's growing potency is blindly stupid and is costing lives. We will have none of our talented, brave servicemen left at this rate. I am not a leftie, nowhere near a socialist. I am pretty far on the right spectrum of the political landscape, but ithink left, right and centre are united in their love and support of our brave guys out there and can't wait to welcome them all home with open arms, pats on the back and cold pints of good ol' english ale!